1. Field
The present disclosure relates to hair rollers for styling hair. More particularly, the disclosure concerns the heating of hair rollers to facilitate their hair setting function.
2. Description of the Prior Art
By way of background, hair styling has been a vanity issue for centuries, if not millenia. The hair styling marketplace is littered with alternative systems for curling and otherwise styling hair using hair rollers. Almost all hair roller systems rely on some type of standalone base heating unit that acts as a heat distribution center to impart heat to each individual roller (also known as a curler), which is designed to absorb the heat. After the roller is fully heated, it is removed from the heat source and placed in the hair so that the stored heat energy is then dissipated or transferred onto the hair being styled. A disadvantage of this type of hair roller system is that the user must wait for the base heating unit to warm up and for the rollers to be heated to the required temperature. Mobility is also limited insofar as the base heating unit is a necessary requirement of use. The base unit is usually bulky and requires an energy source (usually an electrical outlet) in order for it to operate.
In addition, from a quality control perspective, there really is no way for the user to know with any sense of certainty when the optimum curling temperature has actually been realized by the roller. Also, environmental interference and mechanical wear and tear must be accounted for. In many cases, consistent temperatures are not really an achievable goal over an extended period of use. Thus, results may not be consistent.
Finally, because the roller is dependent on the base heating unit for imparting heat energy, the maximum peak energy transmitted onto the roller begins to decline from the moment it is removed from the heat source. As such, there is a inverse relationship between how long it takes the user to place the hot roller in the hair and the ultimate heat energy that will remain with the roller and be available for hair styling. The longer it takes, the less energy remaining, resulting in inconsistent results. To mitigate this problem, some hair roller systems are designed so that the rollers are superheated to account for the inevitable heat loss that occurs prior to rolling the hair around the roller. This can result in burns to the user.
Previously, there have been a few attempts to harness the benefits of exothermic energy for hair rollers, however each of these designs has inherent limitations. Most notably is Morey U.S. Pat. No. 4,958,648 and Kulpa U.S. Pat. No. 4,190,065. Both use exothermic materials as a means of creating an exothermic environment within a hair roller. However, in both cases the exothermic reaction is initiated by introducing a new and separate substance into an existing compound in order to create the thermal reaction.
In Morey, a syringe ruptures the casing of the material container in order to introduce and create a new chemical mixture that generates reaction heat. The Morey device is not reusable and requires the cumbersome injection of a reaction triggering material.
In Kulpa, the exothermic reaction is dependent on a moisture absorbent material that extracts moisture from the wet or moist hair of the user and then mixes with the chemical contained in the roller, which combines through a permeable membrane in the apparatus. The more moist the hair, the more steam and or heat. Dry hair means no heat, and the device will not work. The device requires outside intervention every time it is used.
In each of the foregoing devices, the chemical reaction is not self contained and requires the introduction of a foreign element. These features impose limitations on portability, re-usability and conditions of how and where such devices can be used.